God sent me a new angel
by Stan Wilson
For long-time readers of Faith and
Family, you may remember that I lost my wife, Linda, to ovarian cancer
seven years ago. We were married for 17 years and we spent the last 5 years of
our marriage working together on Faith and Family.
It was a sudden
loss; only 3 days from the time that we learned of her illness until she left
this earth to be with our Lord and Savior. I grieved, but I had no hard
feelings and I immediately turned my thoughts and actions to helping to care
for two of my grandchildren. I continued worshiping and serving our Lord and
Savior and added Linda’s Faith and Family responsibilities to my list of
duties.
In the Fall of
2018, I began to realize that I was lonely for a mate. I had not dated during
the time and really didn’t have any “ladies” in the back of my mind. But God
placed three ladies from my past in my life to help me through this journey.
Two of these ladies contacted me via Facebook and we quickly developed a
wonderful brother-sister relationship. We had been childhood friends from the
1960’s. I also had a desire to connect with the first girl whom I ever dated.
Using some of my journalistic investigative skills, I found her in Japan and we
quickly picked up our friendship. All three of these ladies are divorced and
have absolutely no interest in developing a romantic relationship. But we are
all strong in our faith in Christ and re-bonded as Brother and sisters in
Christ. All three of them guided me, advised me and supported me as I sought to
find a life-mate. Even the sister of my first girlfriend supported me and I
still remember one of her comments; “If God has a lady for you, he will make
her available and you will know it.”
I had been living
the life of a widower, grandfather and bachelor, so I really didn’t have a list
of “prospects.” The four ladies suggested that I consider using the internet
dating services. I signed up with a few and even had a few dates. One of the
ladies even said that she liked me very much, but there was no “spark” in our
relationship. At that point, I really didn’t understand what she meant (after
all, I’m a bit over 18). I just wanted to date and enjoy the company of a lady.
E-harmony listed a
widow in Ulysses, but I didn’t contact her for a month or two because I didn’t
see how such a long-distance could nurture a relationship. Actually, Janice
“liked me” on E-harmony and it took me a month reply. We exchanged a few notes,
and I didn’t hear back from my last message.
Janice wondered
why I didn’t reply to her last message, so she looked me up thru my facebook account and she found my phone number. She called
me one Saturday afternoon and we had a nice visit. She even re-sent me the
E-harmony messages which had been lost in cyberspace. She placed her phone call
to me as she was driving to Dodge City with one of her daughters. I invited her
to supper that evening and her daughter drove her to my home.
“Love at First
Sight.” When she stepped out of the car, my heart melted and my knees almost
gave way. We had a wonderful evening and I began to wonder if God had sent her
to me. We “clicked” immediately and I knew that I wanted to continue this
relationship. When I returned her to her daughter, I gave her a high-school
peck on the lips. She didn’t respond and I wondered if I had blown it.
I called her the
next day and she commented that my peck took her by such a surprise that she
didn’t know what to do. For the next two months we spent every possible minute
with each other. Sometimes, she drove to Dodge City and other times, I drove to
Ulysses. I was completely head over heels with her and she felt the same
“spark”.
Less than two
months into our relationship, I asked her to marry me and she agreed with a
wonderful kiss and hug. We didn’t set a date at that point, but we discussed
some possible times which would be possible with my Faith and Family
schedule. We discussed how our marriage might work since she was a care-giver
for a 99 year old lady in Ulysses.
During our
courtship, I met her family, including her 90 year young
mother who resides in a nursing home in Ulysses. Her family includes 3 adult
children, 9 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren, three brothers and a
sister…all of whom have their own children and grandchildren. Since I an only
child and I have only one child, her family seemed more like an “army” to me,
and I jokingly referred to them as such.
Janice suggested
July 15 as our wedding date and it seemed almost like a “God-send” to us as I
got two extra weeks between the August and September issues of Faith and
Family. We chose to be married in her childhood church in Ulysses by Pastor
Nathan Engelman.
Postponed wedding
trip. Since the publication date for the July issue of Faith and Family
was July 18, we postponed our wedding trip until July 20 and we spent 4 days in
Colorado Springs. We had a wonderful time visiting as many of the area
attractions as we could. We planned on returning to Dodge City on Friday so
that we would extend our time together to include many of the Dodge City
events.
Crazy in love. We awoke
Friday and started our return trip. There’s only one problem with this. Neither
one of us realized that it was Thursday until we were half-way back to Dodge
City, and we had left a day early.
You may ask why I
call Janice my “second angel.” When I started Faith and Family, a friend
suggested that I read the book, The Prayer of Jabez. That little prayer
included the line “bless me and expand my territory.” Since I was starting a
business, that really hit home with me. Linda didn’t start working with me on Faith
and Family until seven years after I started it. About two years after she
started, I realized that she had expanded my territory from about 20 towns to
almost 50 towns. When I realized this, I started calling her my “angel” because
she had truly expanded my territory, just as God did for Jabez.
One of the things
which attracted me to Janice was her strong faith in Christ. She also loves to
read and she asked if there was any way that she could help me with Faith
and Family. We discussed how she might help me by representing the
newspaper in Garden City and Ulysses, but she was already working three days a
week as a care provider. This left her very little time to help with Faith
and Family.
Less than a week
before we were married, the 99 year old lady in
Ulysses passed away and this left Janice without employment. We both realized
that it must have been God’s intervention because this freed us to proceed with
her employment with Faith and Family. God sent me Linda as my angel to
expand my territory for Faith and Family and now he’s sent me Janice as
my new Angel.
Yes, we have an
awesome God.